Thought Leadership

Whoa! Digital ad spend is up 12.5% in the UK this year

Last week we saw a flurry of reports on the state of the UK online ad industry, with both the IAB and AOP releasing the latest in their regular series of updates on the market.

Of particular interest in the latest AOP Organisational Census is the top UK publishers’ focus around RTB, data and analytics.

Though the overall prediction of 15% growth in ad revenue this year looks conservative compared to the activity we’re seeing on our platform, all in all the report finds publishers in a bullish mood. A few points that really stand out include:

68% are increasing investment in data management

Analytics is the top investment priority, closely followed by advertising operations

Despite the much discussed growth of paid content, advertising is still seen by some way as the top revenue stream for publishers, as cited by 56% of respondents to the survey

An almost equal number (45%) expect a greater involvement in RTB this year

The majority of publishers (52%) say they will make more use of private marketplaces in 2013, while a significant 33% will expose more first party data

62% say they will increase headcount, with analysts one of the top three areas they expect to recruit. Ad sales roles are another of the top three areas cited for growth, suggesting the rise of programmatic trading is creating new and different sales roles within publishing businesses, rather than replacing them

The respondents from AOP’s membership represent around 700 digital brands, and a number of Rubicon Project partners.

Meanwhile, IAB’s latest digital ad spend report suggested that digital ad spend increased 12.5 per cent in 2012 year-on-year. The real story, however, was in the growth of mobile advertising in the UK, which passed £500m for the first time, growing 148 per cent on the previous year.

The AOP’s report also points heavily to a mobile focus: as a top area for investment and source of revenues.

Of course, there are still teething problems in mobile, and it’s still nowhere near as big as it should be when you consider the amount of time and attention people spend on their phones (issues you’d barely think existed if you read some of the commentary on the report), all of this is just part of the reason we are focussing so heavily this year on the Mobile Project.